There will be people who will never believe that Jesus is the Messiah or the eternal Son of God, despite all the testimony and evidence which might be presented. Similarly, there will be people who will never admit that they are sinners and in need of a Saviour, despite all the evidence of that. Most people will never change their minds about anything spiritual, until the grace and sovereign power of God somehow crushes their stubborn spirits. And that was exactly the way that it was with the Pharisees in the days of Jesus of Nazareth.
Here in these verses there are three small pieces of evidence to the puzzle of Jesus Christ. The first is practically worthless, because it comes from my overactive imagination. The second is a perfectly good proof that Jesus is the Christ, but it is easily denied by those with a penchant for denial. The third piece of evidence is actually the purpose for this paragraph, but can we see it? In and of themselves none of these will never convince anyone that Jesus is the Messiah. Perhaps for the person who is already a believer, these things are just a few bits of trivia. But actually, there is nothing trivial about the infinite Son of God. These three things ought to help us to properly praise our blessed Saviour.
Once again we catch a glimpse of the Lord’s OMNISCIENCE.
Since my message is kind of short, I thought I’d fill in a couple minutes with Lewis S. Chafer’s definition of omniscience. “Omniscience is not a Bible word, though it customarily will refer to the fact that God knows – to an infinite degree – and eternally – all that is knowable whether actual or possible. God’s actual knowledge may be specified in the following passages of Scripture (a list of a dozen verses.) God’s knowledge of things ideally possible is to be seen in Isaiah 48:18 and Matthew 11:21.” “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” In other words, the Lord knows what would happen if other things took place first. God knows what is even potentially knowable. Chafer goes on, “His knowledge is eternal, incomprehensible, and all-wise.” “The knowledge of God is not subject to increase or decrease, nor subject to reason, is not distressed by regretting, memory, or foreboding.” “Omniscience is the cognition linked with omnipresence. The practical value thereof is important: to those in testing and trial, to those who are tempted to sin in secret, for it is all known by God, and from the infinite resources of God to supply the lack of wisdom in man’s case.” For each of these points, Chafer supplies a number of scriptures.
When Matthew 12:15 says that Christ Jesus knew about the conspiracy against Him, it offers evidence, but not proof, of His omniscience. Obviously, there are arguments that this was not divine knowledge. Some might argue that this was merely intelligence which was passed on to him from someone. Or it might have been something logically deduced. A. T. Robertson, a Greek expert whom I consult often, made a contradicting statement about this verse. He said that the word “knew” indicates that Jesus read their thoughts, But he went on to say that their intentions were plain to anyone who saw their angry countenances. I know that I couldn’t convince an unbeliever, but I believe that this is referring to Jesus’ omniscience.
The second evidence of Jesus’ deity is a little more powerful.
It is that He HEALED EVERYONE who came to him for help.
“Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.” The disciple Luke was one of the physicians of his day – a personal blessing to the Apostle Paul. Whenever he talks about things medical, we ought to remind ourselves of his background. He knew whereof he spoke. In Luke 6 he says, “And he (Christ) came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and HEALED THEM ALL.”
Most of us have all known a few doctors, physicians, and surgeons. And it goes without saying that none of them have been able to cure all of their patients. There is One very special physician, however, who has never failed to heal all whom He wanted to cure. That doesn’t mean that there were not some around Christ, who were not cured, but everyone whom he intended to cure walked away perfect whole. One example might be the Lord’s visit to the Pool of Bethesda. Not all were cured on that occasion. But neither was it the Lord’s intention to cure them all.
The question in regard to this verse is whether or not the scripture can be trusted to tell us the truth. Were these verses translated correctly? Do the originals make the same declarations that we read in our Authorized English Bibles? The answers are – “Yes, the translation is correct.” And, “Yes, the original language intended to say that all were healed.” I won’t argue the point that it takes faith to believe every word in the Word of God. But I am one of those people. The Bible has proven itself to be true, over and over again. If my faith in the Word of God is stubborn, I believe that it is a good kind of stubbornness, and I will not repent of it.
The third evidence of Christ’s Messiahship and deity is to be found in the rest of this paragraph.
It’s not my opinion, but the actual purpose of Matthew. But it is not obvious, and again it will not convince the man whose mind is already made up, but it’s there. First, we might need a little background. When Christ victoriously returned from Satan’s temptation out in the wilderness, Luke tells us that he went back home to Galilee. Please turn to Luke 4:14 – “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
You might be wondering what this has to do with our text from Matthew 12 – please be patient. As Jesus began His public ministry, He went into the synagogue which he attended throughout his youth. And there He was given the opportunity to read the scriptures. Whether it was the scripture already chosen for that day, or if He selected this passage on purpose, He read from Isaiah 61 which was a prophecy of the coming Messiah. Jesus might have said much more than what Luke recorded, but the gist of it was, “This day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” He said, “I am the fulfillment of this prophecy about the Messiah.” Immediately there were questions about this young man whom so many of those people knew so well. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Actually, Joseph was his step-Father, for Jesus was the Son of God, just as Isaiah said in another passage
Now please turn to Isaiah 42 and notice that some of what Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 was first prophesied in chapter 42. Not only are these things mentioned here, but some them can be found in other sections of Isaiah. Notice Isaiah 42:5-8 – “Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Isaiah is the Old Testament’s most evangelical book. It is filled with prophesies about Christ, including His death as a sacrifice for sin. Christ often referred to it, and so did His disciples.
As an explanation for Jesus’ temporary departure from Galilee when the plot to murder Him was revealed, Matthew quoted the first part of Isaiah 42. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.” Part of Christ’s ministry was to be a “light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
As the plot to kill Christ first began to develop, Jesus took His ministry on the road, so to speak. He preached the gospel to people who were not of the house of Israel – that is to the Gentiles. He preached in Tyre and Sidon; He ministered in the north, and on the eastern side of Galilee. He carried the gospel in among the Samaritans. The reference which Matthew makes, which may seem to be out of place, actually is quite fitting. He was saying that despite the common Jewish chauvinism against all foreigners, Christ Jesus deliberately carried His ministry to them. And the reason for this ministry was because this was the prophesied will of God regarding the Messiah. Not only were the Gentiles allowed to hear the gospel, but many of them would respond to it by the grace of God. “In his name shall the Gentiles trust.” This was something totally foreign to the minds and prejudices of the Jews, but Christ was no commoner. He was the God/man on a divine mission, doing the work of which the Messiah had been prophesied.
And in case you hadn’t notice, that statement basically includes you and me – who are not of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh. Not only is the quotation a small testimony that Jesus is the Christ the anointed of God. But it is also a message of hope for the heathen people of North America. There is a Saviour who offers Himself to people throughout the world. Yes, He was of the seed of David and Abraham, but He is the Saviour of souls from among the Gentiles. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!.